Castle Village Farm’s newest claim, the four-year-old New York-bred filly Victory at Last, is being pointed toward a race in the Aqueduct condition book for November 14th.  It’s a $15,000 claiming race, at a mile, for fillies and mares that have never won three races or that are three-year-olds or that haven’t won on the dirt in the past six months.  Victory at Last, with four lifetime wins, makes it under the last of those conditions.

Castle Village Farm claimed Victory at Last on October 12th at Belmont for $14,000. Trainer Bruce Brown has changed her shoeing and her diet and expects to have her ready for a strong performance by mid-November.

Castle Village Farm’s newest claiming partnership, the CVF 2012 Partnership, claimed its second horse on October 12th at Belmont, for $14,000.

Victory at Last is a four-year-old New York-bred filly by Victory Gallop out of Nicoise, by Cape Town. She has four wins and 10 in-the-money finishes out of 20 lifetime starts, with earnings of $122,000. She raced most of her early career on turf, but showed marked improvement after switching to dirt this year. We’re hoping for strong showings from her on the Aqueduct inner track this winter.

Victory at Last is the replacement for this partnership’s first horse, Crown the Chief, who was claimed away on September 1st at Saratoga. Like Crown the Chief, Victory at Last will be trained by Bruce Brown.

Castle Village Farm’s Tom Cat Allie won the 6th race at PARX (formerly Philadelphia Park) on Sunday, October 21, drawing away in the stretch top defeat odds-on favorite Charles Russell by more than four lengths. Congratulations to our PARX-based trainer Donnie White and jockey Stewart Elliott.

Tom Cat Allie was claimed out of that race, so we’ll be looking for a replacement as soon as racing resumes at PARX after Hurricane Sandy.